Boulder County commissioners hear another round of 2014 budget proposals

By John FryarLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
10/29/2013 07:11:30 PM MDT

Updated:
10/29/2013 07:12:31 PM MDT

A sampling of Tuesday's budget requests

$150,000 in county money to match $199,499 in Colorado Department of Natural Resources funds for Boulder County's purchase of a high-capacity wood grinder that would reduce forest slash and wood debris that could then be used for biomass fuels for heating county buildings and produce biochar for soil applications.

$60,764 to offset reduced federal funding of Head Start preschool programs, and $20,979 to offset similar federal funding cuts in the county's Community Action Programs.

$72,160 to pay for a Boulder County Public Health environmental staffer who'd be responsible for inspecting existing oil and gas wells for compliance with state air quality standards and for providing additional capacity to respond to air and water quality complaints about such wells.

$84,910 in increased county funding for Boulder County Mental Health Partners' programs at its centers in Longmont and Boulder.

$157,247 in increased annual county spending on the Coroner's Office's autopsies, a $13,916 increase in the appropriation for that office's death investigations, and $5,000 in added spending for overtime wages for the coroner's staff.

$73,644 for an additional medical investigator, $50,028 for a pathology technician and $46,236 for an administrative technician for the Coroner's Office.

$81,936 to a senior wildfire prevention and protection planner in the Land Use Department, converting what's been a temporary position to a permanent staff spot.

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$85,848 for an oil and gas liaison staff position to be created in the Board of County Commissioners Office, with that person to serve as liaison between county government and the county's residents and the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and to respond to citizen inquiries and complaints about oil and gas operations within the county.

BOULDER -- The Boulder County Transportation Department wants $759,706 earmarked in next year's county budget to cover the county's share of the projected first year's costs of a program to rehabilitate the crumbling paved roads in nearly 120 rural residential subdivisions.

The Boulder County District Attorney's Office is seeking $752,081 from the county's 2014 budget to pay for the next phase of remodeling the DA's space in the Criminal Justice Center at Sixth Street and Canyon Boulevard in Boulder.

The Boulder County Coroner's Office would like $101,746 to pay for a video system that would allow the remote viewing of autopsies that'll be conducted at the new coroner's facility that's to be built at 5600 Flatiron Parkway in east Boulder.

Those were among the big-ticket items in a series of 2014 budget requests that county departments and county-subsidized agencies presented to the Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday.

Commissioners haven't decided on any of those spending proposals yet. County board members are expected to announce their own informal 2014 spending decisions during a Nov. 7 afternoon work session, decisions their budget staff will then translate into a proposed overall budget that's to be the subject of a Nov. 14 public hearing.

As was the case at last week's public hearing on flood-related spending requests for the coming year, no one from the general public spoke Tuesday.

Boulder County is asking voters in unincorporated county residential subdivisions to approve a permanent property tax-supported Subdivision Paving Public Improvement District in this fall's election. If voters reject that idea, the commissioners plan to proceed with creation of a Local Improvement District, billing subdivision property owners annual fee for the bulk of the costs of rehabilitating, repaving and reconstructing subdivison roads over the coming 15 years. Each property's bill would be based on a formula that includes a combination of that property's value and the lengths of paved roads in the property subdivision.

The commissioners have committed the county to paying 20 percent of the total subdivision road rehabilitation costs under either a voter-approved PID or a county-imposed LID. Transportation director George Gerstle said the county's share would depend on the outcome of the election, but that the $759,706 he's seeking is a projection of what the county's 20 percent might amount to in 2014.

District Attorney Stan Garnett was attending a conference Tuesday and did not personally present his $752,082 request for the next phase of remodeling the DA's Justice Center quarters.

But the DA's staff said in its written request that once the second and final phase of the remodeling project is completed, "attorneys and staff will have adequate office space in which to do their jobs" and won't have "to work in conditions where basic issues like temperature and insect control are continual problems."

Coroner Emma Hall said the $101,746 video display, recording and playback system she's seeking for her new facility, with construction now expected to be started next February and be completed by February 2015, would allow law enforcement officers and others to observe autopsies without risking exposure to potential biohazards or infectious diseases -- and could prevent contamination of evidence by such observers.

Hall said she and her staff have found that officers often would prefer to be in another room while the autopsies are being performed, a room where they could do other work while waiting and observing, or to "just stay out of harm's way" while the procedures are performed.

Hall's staff also has said the video system would increase the office's security by allowing it to monitor entries and exits before permitting visitors to enter the building, particularly when the office is staffed by a single person.